Gossip Girl Under the Paley Moonlight

The hotties of Gossip Girl make an appearance at The Paley Center for Media’s 25th Annual William S Paley Television Festival in Hollywood on Saturday. Blake Lively (in Smythe), Leighton Meester (in Julie Haus), Taylor Momsen and Jessica Szohr all made appearances.

Here are some tidbits from the Gossip Girl panel via TV Guide:

– Blair (Leighton Meester) will be down one sidekick when the show returns next month. [Creator Josh] Schwartz revealed that Nan Zhang (Kati) enrolled at Brown University during the strike — and didn’t even bother to tell anyone at the show! As a result, Nicole Fiscella (Isabel) will lead Blair’s minion march alone.

– There was lots of discussion about how, in the Gossip Girl books, Chuck (Ed Westwick) was gay and had a pet monkey. Said discussion ended with someone on the panel (I forget who) concluding that the “monkey turned him gay.”

– Jessica Szohr landed the role of Vanessa simply by crashing a barbecue Schwartz hosted. Schwartz recalled opening his door, seeing Szohr for the first time and shouting, “It’s Vanessa!”

– SPOILER: Schwartz/Savage teased that this season’s final five episodes will build toward a wedding — but not necessarily the one we’re expecting (i.e. Lily and Bart).